As Bluffton’s business incubator enters its first full calendar year, the Don Ryan Center for Innovation’s sole paid staffer says he sees early signs of success as area entrepreneurs look poised to stand on their own, but he readily acknowledges the startup-builder is still starting up.

“You read the stories afterward about how (businesses) were successful, but they don’t tell you how they were trying to puzzle it out,” said Jordan Berliner, the center’s director. “We have a model, and we know we’ll be successful, but we’re still testing ideas.”

Based within donated CareCore National office space at Buckwalter Place, The Don Ryan Center opened in May as a partnership between Bluffton, Clemson University and the private sector offering consulting, access to resources, networking and seed financing for fledgling entrepreneurs, with special emphasis toward technology startups.

With nine businesses now in the ranks and some looking for capital to expand, the center is building relationships with investors while also planning to shore up its own finances with greater outside support.

Signs of success

To Berliner, the clearest measure of output is the number of entrepreneurs leaving the incubator to contribute to the local economy, provide jobs and forming “the nucleus of a business perspective within the area” that started with CareCore’s convergence of technology and health care. He said he anticipates some of the center’s clients graduating before the one-year anniversary, though he couldn’t say how many.

“That will be the proof of the pudding, that we’ll have come full circle — by starting with someone coming into the center, coming out, then setting up and growing,” he said.

With the myriad factors that go into business success, leaving the center certainly doesn’t guarantee future prosperity for an entrepreneur, some of whom could have managed on their own, Berliner said.

“But the companies that come out of here will come out of here stronger than had they just been on their own,” he said. “In some cases they may never have gotten to that stage.”

Jared Jester of Jester Communications says the vision was all his own, but the art school graduate whose company specializes in apps for sales professionals provided invaluable assistance with his business plan and the marketing research end with its Clemson connection.

“They helped with the constructive criticism, if you will, and more importantly they served as the liaison with Clemson university, with the research that was generated,” he said.

Jester’s company numbers a dozen full-time employees with seven to eight freelancers or part-time associates, but he said he’s anticipating doubling its size in the next year as he takes on new markets.

“That may sound a bit overzealous, but based on what I’m told that’s realistic,” he said.

NutriFusion, another original member nearing graduation, will likely shift production of its nutrient-restorative additives from New York to join its headquarters here in Beaufort County as it expands, said Bill Grand, the company’s president.

“As soon as I get sufficient volume to warrant a plant here, the intent is that we would put in a facility,” he said.

The challenges ahead

As more incubator businesses reach the fundraising stage Berliner is establishing relationships with individual investors and firms through his own contacts and those recommended by the center’s board, which helps select new entrants while opening up its rolodex and providing additional guidance.

He acknowledged seed financing as a critical need, but one that takes time to develop.

“We’re just beginning to build a list, just beginning to get to know them, and it’s a fairly haphazard process,” he said. “It just takes a lot of time and a lot of sweat.”

But the center, which depends on $154,000 in town of Bluffton funding this year and at least $50,000 the next two years, also has to find a path to greater independence through grants, fees from clients (now $200 per month) and more support from the private sector. Private sponsorships have reached $34,000 since the center’s opening, but only one of those sources has officially offered multi-year commitments, and more is needed, Berliner said.

“Ultimately the money has to come from — the town may always contribute something — but ultimately it has to come from sponsorships, grants, and the little bit we collect in fees from our innovators, and we’re working toward that.”

Counting on continuing subsidies to a degree is not uncommon, according to the National Business Incubation Association, which found that only three of the top-performing programs in its study of 376 incubators operate without public money.

Rarer still is a program that supports itself entirely with fees and services, said Linda Knopp, the NBIA’s communications chief.

“The goal is to be self-sustainable, which means they have reliable sources of revenue,” she said. “Not all funding comes from any one source and they’ve identified contingencies if money went away. A self-sustaining incubator is much more common.”

Mayor Lisa Sulka, who sits on the center’s board, said it’s been hard at times finding local sponsors but added she thinks more will come out of the woodwork once graduates emerge.

“I think the board members have helped sort of dig into their databases and people they know, but it’s tough times, and we’re coming out of a horrible recession and I think everyone is asking the same people for money,” she said. “But once we get a few grads from there and some businesses started, that will naturally bring in people who want to support it.”

As for whether those businesses will stay, Berliner said he’s optimistic, considering most have been local and outsiders have approached him specifically out of an interest in the area, but there are no guarantees.

“There’s no indentured servitude anymore in this country,” he said. “You can’t force them to do it. Circumstances could conceivably dictate that they can’t be successful here or they can’t do it here, but we expect that to be a minority of cases because the people in (the center) want to be here.”

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